The commitment is contained in the newly-published government response to the Independent Panel on Forestry’s final report recommendations on the future of trees and woodland in England.

The government says BRE chief executive Dr Peter Bonfield will head up the industry action, "Grown in Britain", which will focus on creating market demand for the wood industry supply chain and exploring new market opportunities that will drive jobs, skills and growth across the UK.

Other news in the government response includes the creation of an independent public body to hold in trust the nation’s publicly-owned forests in place of the Forestry Commission, though the commission will continue its existing work and gets a £3.5m budget increase next year.

The government has not directly answered the panel’s call for local authorities to introduce a "Wood First" policy for construction projects but it has held initial discussions with the Timber Trade Federation and commissioned research aimed at developing a better understanding of wood products and their markets. "We will publish more on this in the summer," it said.

Dr Bonfield’s involvement in heading the action plan will include drawing in processors, retailers, contractors, buyers, woodland owners and the government. The outcomes of his work will be published in the autumn.

The government statement said the panel’s recommendation to target a 50% increase in England’s woodland cover from 10% to 15% by 2060 was "unlikely to be achievable". But it said a joint approach by government and forestry sector could boost private investment in woodlands, helping achieve 12% woodland cover by 2060.

Goal to create "economic pull"

Peter Bonfield told TTJ that the industry’s action plan was an opportunity to achieve something even greater than the Olympic Delivery Authority’s (ODA) fulfilment of its 100% legal and sustainable timber pledge at the Olympic Park.

"I’ve seen wonderful things going on in the [forestry and timber] sector in the last 15-20 years but the gap has been the demand side," said Dr Bonfield, who was ODA lead on construction for London 2012.

"My goal is not to create new organisations but to harness collectively what is going on already in a way that the whole represents more than the sum of the parts.

"It’s about creating a strong economic engine that makes our woodlands and forests more economically sustainable. I want to provide an economic pull for the products that come from British forests."

Dr Bonfield is assembling a panel of business leaders, to include retailers and contractors.

"This will focus more on the demand side than supply and will involve people that have strong procurement power. I’m looking at how we might work to unlock new demand."

Confor chief executive Stuart Goodall and the Forestry Commission will be on the panel looking at the supply side and market opportunities for timber.

Dr Bonfield said society had empathy with forests and the goal was to increase this and create a "wood and forestry culture".